While on holiday in the States for the first time recently I actually changed my Play Store country to be able to download some US specific parking app, not knowing that I apparently have to wait a full year before I can change my country again (I don't remember reading this during the process).

Explaining this to Google Play and Google One customer support led to nothing, they just told me to wait out the full year essentially. I'm just stuck with it for now.

Full Year?! Good to know, and perhaps at this point, a burner phone is the best choice for overseas travel.

Or a second Google account. Just have a USA account you can switch to. I'm heading to Canada next month and hiring a car so I should get on that now

Edit: Just tried and you can't do that, all accounts are in the same country and you even need a payment method for the new country!

Yeah! But I was also thinking of all the hassles with SIM/eSIM, and having a second phone just to travel seemed smoother.

I've had to do this before too. Having to create a fresh Google account when visiting another country using a domestic IP address. This because changing billing country in certain platforms means losing purchases or personaliation.

I've chosen a constrained name pool for my hosts and devices, and when I add new ones, I choose the same name but in a different language.

I can just see it now, I go on an international trip and make a trail of Google Accounts for myself, all named the same, but in the local language. Heehee, can't wait!